Back in February Rich and I went to Montreal to hang out with some old friends and be a bit touristy. While there, we ate at Crudessence twice, and I picked up their cookbook. Originally I’d planned to make one of their granola recipes, but well, it’s hard to make granola in a dehydrator when you don’t own a dehydrator (imagine that!). So I took their Cranberry Ginger granola recipe as inspiration and ran with the flavour idea. Then I realized Jae Steele has a similar granola in her book, Get it Ripe. Those two recipes, plus one from David Lebovitz, were the inspiration behind the final product I ended up with.

Cranberry Ginger Granola

Get gluten-free oats and oat bran if you want to make this 100% gluten-free. As written, it is already vegan.

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup oat bran
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup chopped pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup coconut oil (melted slightly if it is hard)
2/3 cup brown rice syrup
1/3 cup fined chopped candied ginger
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 300C. Lightly oil two cookie sheets.

Combine all ingredients except the ginger and cranberries. Mix well to make sure the oil and brown rice syrup are well distributed throughout the granola.

Spread the mixture onto your cookie sheets; you want a pretty thin layer so it will cook evenly and crisp up nicely.

Bake in your preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, stirring once or twice during the baking process. Stirring makes sure everything browns evenly, however, you don’t want to stir it too much or you won’t get the lovely clumps of granola that Rich loves.

Once your oats are a lovely golden brown, remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes, then stir in your ginger and cranberries.

Allow to cool completely, then store in an airtight container. Properly stored, this should keep about a month. That is, if you don’t eat it all before then.

To get started blogging again, I thought I’d do something very low-key and post my responses to this survey on gluten-free vegan eating. Note that xgfx is their shorthand for gluten-free vegan.

1. What’s your favorite gluten-free flour?
Tough one! It changes depending on what I’m making. Lately I’ve been loving coconut flour, but of course you can only use it in things that you want to have that coconut flavour. Of course, my go-to flour for 99% of what I make is sorghum, so maybe I should say that.

2. What have you always wanted to deglutenize, but haven’t yet?
Seitan! Apparently, it IS possible….

3. What’s one of your favorite xgfx meals to make?
Pad Thai

4. Your biggest gluten-free success that makes ya most proud?
Well, there isn’t one specific recipe, but I’ve found that I’m able to convert almost any cake, cookie, quick bread or muffin to a gluten-free, vegan version. Admittedly it sometimes takes a few tries, but I usually do succeed eventually! As I described to someone once, it’s really just about chemistry.

5. Most “epic xgfx fail”?
Oh dear. Not long after I went gluten-free, I bought potato flour instead of potato starch for a bread recipe. Lets just say the bread turned into a rock, and I’m not even sure the squirrels I tried to feed it to were going to eat it.

6. What product do you wish was xgfx that isn’t?
Veggie dogs! I’m totally serious. Here in Canada no one makes a tofu dog, only a tofu-and-seitan dog. I can very easily make a gluten-free, vegan bun! I just need a veggie dog to put in it.

7. If you could pass along one gluten-free tip to a gluten-free newbie, what would it be?
Learn to appreciate the foods that are naturally gluten-free, like rice and quinoa. If you’re always trying to replicate foods that have gluten in them, you’re going to be disappointed sometimes.

8. What’s your favorite xgfx product?
I’ll say two:

In Toronto: bread from Bunner’s Bake Shop.

Available all over the place: Sol Cuisine Veggie Breakfast Patties

9. Is there anything you miss being gluten-free?
Regular bread. Not being able to eat bread means finding a quick vegan meal can be difficult.

10. Any xgfx techniques you’ve learned that have been most helpful?
My main advice to anyone baking gluten-free is to blend flours. Never try to make something with just a single flour – you won’t get the results you’re hoping for.

11. Have you found a favorite gluten-free pizza dough recipe that makes your heart sing?

Yes! Sometimes I play with the flours I use and it STILL comes out tasty every time. Rich likes it so much that he doesn’t like going out for pizza, he prefers that I make one instead.

12. Xanthan gum. Do you or don’t you? Love it or leave it?
I’m meh about it. I’ll use it when I need to, but try to leave it out if I don’t.

13. Favorite gluten free prepackaged bread?
Well other than the great stuff from Bunner’s, I do really like the buckwheat bread from Organic Works and the quinoa bread from Little Stream. Oh, and Organic Works also makes a yummy cinnamon raisin loaf, if you want something a bit more sweet.

14. What’s your favorite way to nosh on quinoa?
Quinoa salad. Easy to make, easy to modify to your own tastes.

15. Name five of your most coveted pantry staples.
Chickpeas, short-grain brown rice, gluten-free tamari, rice pasta, good quality olive oil.

16. If you could only buy three gluten free flours to last you for three months, what would they be?
Sorghum, corn starch, chickpea.

17. Any xgfx ingredients you are intimidated about trying?
Nothing I can think of at the moment! I’m pretty, err, daring in the kitchen.

18. Favorite place to buy foods?
I have a few: Karma Co-op for their bulk gluten-free flours, nut butters, and spices, Fiesta Farms for their ‘international’ groceries section, and Sweet Potato because they are in my ‘hood and a good place to get organic veggies and fruits.

19. Favorite meal when dining out?
I like foods that are naturally gluten-free and vegan, like a lot of Indian or Thai curries. Easy to order and very yummy.

20. Name one xgfx product you’ve tried that you didn’t like.
A LOT of the breads out there are not very good. I’ve been disappointed many times. The only brands I buy are the three mentioned above, plus sometimes if I can find them I get Aidan’s gluten-free breads or bagels.

I went there for lunch today, and while I won’t do a full review just yet, I will say the yuba ‘chicken’ taco was really delicious. I got it with rice and beans on the side (tasty!) and also picked up two donuts for later – one lime/coconut, one cafe con ‘leche’. If Rich is lucky, I’ll share them with him. ;)

Two quick iPhone photos I took while enjoying lunch:

Go check them out and tell me what you think!

Hot Beans – Baldwin at Spadina in Kensington Market. Takeout lunch for $10, tax included.

As someone who adheres to both of those diets, it can be very difficult finding a snack if I’m at a cafe with Rich on a lazy weekend afternoon. Toronto has a lot of choices for vegans, and a lot for gluten-free people. There are even places that advertise themselves as being both gluten-free and vegan. However, I’ve always found that they don’t mean both gluten-free and vegan, they mean either gluten-free or vegan. I’ve been disappointed by this every time. It’s not that I don’t understand how tricky it can be to bake things with both of those diets in mind – believe me, I’ve had my fair share of failed kitchen experiments learning to navigate my way through gluten-free, vegan baked goods! But I also know it can be done. And by the strong success of Bunner’s Bake Shop, I’d say there is demand out there for this sort of thing.

The story behind Bunner’s is a bit of a small business fairy-tale: Girl meets boy. Girl and boy decide to open business together, selling their baked goods in the Distillery District last summer (after doing a lot of research and coming up with a business plan). Their vegan, gluten-free products became so popular that they usually sell out by the end of the day. Girl and boy advertise on the Toronto Vegetarian Association’s directory, and start getting tons of calls from people asking about their products. Girl and boy decide to open a bake shop and find a cute little space in the Junction. Now they’ve got their products in a few cafes all over Toronto and still nearly sell out at their bakery location every day.

As for my trip to visit them? Well, yesterday Rich and I finally make the trek up from Keele station (which we’re at every Sunday anyway) and popped in to see what they had. We were greeted with a huge smile and chit chatted about the beautiful weather and the products behind the counter. We decided to get a cupcake in every flavour they had available, plus one of their Creamies (for Rich) and Supersonic Gypsy cookies (for me).

Verdict? Oh. My. God. The Gypsy cookie was perfect; if I wasn’t afraid of gaining a ton of weight I’d eat one daily. It was packed to the brim with oats (certified gluten-free, of course!), seeds, cranberries and chocolate. Not too sweet and nice and filling. Rich’s Creamie, which is two chocolate chip cookies sandwiched together with chocolate or vanilla icing, was really great too. The bite I had was tender, sweet and very chocolatey – if I had ordered it, I probably would have only eaten half in one sitting, as it packed a real sugar punch.

And the cupcakes?

The four we managed to snag were vanilla, coconut, lemon and red velvet. Now, I’ve made my fair share of gluten-free, vegan cupcakes, and friends have always given my attempts a thumbs up. I know a big part of the secret is finding the perfect blend of flours, to try to mimic regular flour as best as you can,  giving it a light crumb without allowing your product to become a crumbly mess when someone tries to eat it. You have to be a bit of a chemist to pull this off – a bit of extra protein here, a bit of starch for lightness there, something to bind the ingredients together in the absence of gluten, all while making a good tasting final product.

Bunner’s product really blew me away.  They use bean flours but I couldn’t taste any ‘beaniness’ at all. The cupcake came out of its paper liner really easily but didn’t instantly fall apart. And the flavours are fantastic – red velvet lightly chocolatey and sweet with a hint of ‘cream cheese’ (vegan, of course) from the icing. Lemon tasting like real lemon and not lemon candies. Coconut and vanilla also wonderful, even a day old (we’d saved them for today).

Please, do yourself a favour and check this place out. It’s worth the trip into the Junction if you don’t already live near there – there’s a reason they were voted best new bakery for 2010 by BlogTO! You don’t have to be vegan or gluten-free to appreciate tasty baked goods, right?

Bunner’s Bake Shop, 3054 Dundas Street West in the Junction, 647-352-2975.

I had three organic, fair-trade bananas languishing on my counter, so decided to combine those with some mini chocolate chips and make muffins.

This was the result.

My experiment paid off! These are great – not too sweet, a bit of chocolate and a great banana flavour. Not to mention some fiber from the oat bran, and not too crazy on the fat content with only 1/3 cup of oil in there.

But hey, my goal ultimately was a good tasting muffin and I think I hit the target on that one. If you make these, let me know how they turn out and if you like them!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Vegan and Gluten-free!

1 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1 cup oat bran (if you’re super gluten sensitive, make sure you buy certified gluten-free oat bran)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 medium, ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup vegan mini chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life brand)

Preheat oven to 375^oC. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper liners.

Mix the mashed bananas, oil, brown sugar and apple sauce in a large bowl until well combined.

In a second bowl, whisk together the flours, starch, oat bran, salt and baking powder. Once mixed, dump the contents into the bowl with the wet ingredients and stir to combine.

Add in the chocolate chips and stir until chips are well distributed through the batter.

Fill muffin cups full – with my tins I had exactly enough batter to fill the tins and none left over.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until the tops are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the centre of one muffin comes out clean. If your oven doesn’t heat very evenly (like mine!) you’ll want to turn the tin around 180^o after 15 minutes, to make sure the muffins cook evenly.

Eat fresh out of the oven. If you have leftovers, store in an airtight container; they’ll keep for a few days.

To make today just that little bit nicer, I decided to make some vegan pho. For those not familiar with pho, it’s a traditional Vietnamese noodle soup, usually made with chicken or beef broth as the base. Hearty, warming, spicy and delicious, just what we needed on a bit of a dreary Monday.

For my vegan soup base, I used this great recipe from Emily at The Kitchn as my inspiration, but made a few changes to include some miso in the broth and make use of the spices I had available to me. I also simmered the broth for longer to allow the flavours to develop.

When it was time to eat, I loaded up my bowl with baked tofu cubes, bok choy, bahn pho noodles and thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms, then garnished with bean sprouts, cilantro and sriracha.

Perhaps not a traditional pho, but it certainly works as a vegan version! The only problem with this recipe is it only makes two bowls. You might want to double it if you want leftovers, or if you’re really hungry after a day of complaining about politics.

Vegan Pho
Inspired by The Kitchn

Broth (none of these ingredients need to be chopped perfectly, as most will be strained out of the final product):
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 2-inch piece of ginger root, peeled and chopped into 2 or 3 pieces
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise or 1/2 teaspoon anise seed, if you can’t find star anise
2 cloves
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
4 cups water
2 tablespoons miso (use a rice-and-bean-based miso if you’re sensitive to gluten)
1 teaspoon soy sauce (gluten-free for those who can’t do gluten!)
4 carrots, washed well or peeled then chopped

Other ingredients:
1/2 pound pho noodles (dried flat rice noodles – you can use any width you like, even the ones packaged as ‘pad thai noodles’)
1/2 a block of tofu, cut into small cubes and baked or pan fried until lightly browned
3 baby bok choy, washed and ends removed, then lightly steamed
1/2 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms, steamed with the bok choy

For serving: bean sprouts, cilantro, sriracha (other things you could use include green onions, Thai basil, lime wedges, chile peppers)

To make the broth: put the chopped onion and ginger in a small pan and cook them under the broiler until they are browned but not burnt, 5-10 minutes. While they brown (keep an eye on them, the broiler can turn things from brown to black in about 2.2 seconds flat!), place the cinnamon, anise, cloves and coriander in a large pot and place on the stove over medium heat, stirring every so often to prevent burning.

Once your spices are nice and aromatic and your onion and ginger are ready to go, put the rest of the broth ingredients into the pot with the onion and ginger. Let come up to a gentle simmer, then cover and let cook for 1 hour.

Strain the broth, making sure to reserve the liquid and get rid of the carrots and other vegetable bits. I know usually we do the opposite in the kitchen, so I figured a reminder might be appreciated! Yes, I’ve nearly lost broth on more than one occasion because I was on auto-pilot, how did you guess?

When the broth is nearly finished cooking, you can prepare your noodles according to package directions. You want them to be a bit chewy – don’t overcook them to the falling apart stage.

To assemble: Place half the noodles into a bowl, and top with half the tofu, bok choy and mushrooms. Cover with half the broth. Make a second bowl exactly like the first. Let each person add in their preferred amounts of cilantro, bean sprouts and any other toppings you like.

Eat!

^*For those not catching what I mean, pho is pronounced like ‘fuh’ not ‘foe’. Ahem.

So, in other words: sorry to have disappeared yet again, but expect a few more posts around here over the next few weeks!

Also, I got one of these as a gift over the holidays (thanks Rich!):

It’s great for improving lighting situations when photographing food. Especially when you photograph after sunset (which occurs around 5pm right now). This photo, which was just of my breakfast a week ago, illustrates the improvements – the color, light and shadows are much better. I need more practice shooting with my new toy, but I’m sure I’ll get plenty of that over the next little while.

Happy New Year! I hope to have lots of tasty things to share with you for 2011.

One of the things that has been really taking up my time is working on a charity banquet, an Oxfam-style Hunger Banquet to be precise. Given that hunger is indeed a food-related topic, and given that the food served at the banquet will be as local and in season as possible, I thought I’d post something about that here.

That, and to be honest, I want to get the word out on this important event to help make it a success!

From our official media release:

Hunger Banquet to Benefit Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders, The Children’s Breakfast Clubs and Oxfam.

On Saturday, November 20, 2010, at 5:30 p.m., the Toronto Zen Centre hosts a Hunger Banquet to bring attention to the world-wide crisis of hunger.

Every day, 24,000 people die of hunger, three-fourths of them children under five. In our country, too, people suffer from hunger. Each month, more than 700,000 Canadians receive food from a food bank.

The Hunger Banquet is held at the Steelworkers Union Hall at 25 Cecil Street. To experience the realities of food and hunger, attendees are streamed by random draw into high, middle, or low income groups to reflect the inequalities of food distribution on our planet. Following a presentation by a guest speaker who will address issues of hunger caused by the recent flooding in Pakistan, everyone is served a full vegetarian dinner. Food has been generously donated by local organic farmers and food suppliers, and prepared by local chefs.

To attend the Hunger Banquet, please make a reservation by November 16th. Call the Toronto Zen Centre, at (416) 766-3400 or send an e-mail to: info@torontozen.org. Space is limited and reservations are required. The minimum contribution is $40 per person to be donated to hunger relief. Canned or boxed food items for an emergency food bank are welcomed. The Hunger Banquet is a volunteer driven initiative and all proceeds will go to Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders, The Children’s Breakfast Clubs and Oxfam’s hunger relief campaign in Pakistan.

I also want to mention we will also be having a speaker from the Children’s Breakfast Clubs who will address the issue of childhood hunger in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

People who attended the banquet last year were very moved by the presentations and really felt it opened their eyes to the issue of world hunger. Many expressed appreciation for having been able to attend.

On a more personal note, you can also get tickets directly from me (and I’d be glad to tell you more about the event if you’re interested!). Just hit the ‘contact us’ tab for my email address, or use the contact form.

And as for the food that will be served? Well, I am friends with both of the chefs and I can promise you the food will be good… while neither of them currently owns or works at a restaurant, both have been cooking for many years and both currently work as caterers/personal chefs.

Please consider attending this special event, and I would be very grateful if you shared this post with family, coworkers and friends in the GTA.

We got a wonderful bunch of kale, some garlic, and some tomatoes in our latest CSA share, so I immediately thought pasta would be wonderful. I just scored an old (but still in great condition) Cuisinart food processor at a yard sale, so I wanted to make up a pesto to go on said pasta. But my basil plant was looking a bit sad, so that was out. Have no fear – kale to the rescue!

This is a kale pesto made with chopped kale (with the most woody stem bits removed), several cloves of garlic, pine nuts, nutritional yeast, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. To that I simply added some chopped tomato and served it over corn pasta. If you don’t try to avoid gluten, you could easily serve this over any vegan pasta you like.

Ok, let’s be honest right from the first paragraph here: I didn’t do the challenge exactly as John wrote it, but I think he’ll forgive me.

See, I’ve only done a bit of canning before, and it had been a while, so I didn’t really remember all the rules, other than the general food safety stuff. Since I wasn’t an experienced canner/food preserver, I was supposed to make one of three recipes: apple butter, bruschetta, or roasted tomatoes with garlic and basil.

But as you will see, I didn’t make any of those things.

A few weekends ago I got together with my friend Carole and did a bunch of canning with her. We canned corn and roasted tomatoes (with just oil and salt). I took home about a half dozen of the jars and have used most of them since.

Then, real life^tm attacked. Rich and I both have a lot of commitments outside the house in the coming months (starting, err, tomorrow!), to the point where there are some weeks we won’t be able to cook dinner at home at all. Well, not unless we want to be eating at 10 or 11pm! So I knew I had to start making some meals ahead that we could easily grab and reheat at home (or on the run). Suddenly making apple butter just didn’t fit into my schedule.

The last two weeks have been spent making a lot of different things: vegan chili, corn soup, squash/corn/chipotle soup, and several types of muffins. I started to can up some of the soup and quickly realized there was no where to store it.

Seriously, have you seen my cupboards? There isn’t room for a bunch of big jars of soup!

So instead, I tossed them all into my freezer. You can freeze jars of soup or chili, providing you let them cool completely before doing so (to help reduce ice crystal formation) and you leave an inch or two of space at the top of the jar, to allow for expansion (due to freezing). I have had tons of room in the freezer, so this plan worked really well.

The corn soup you see pictured above is a jae steele recipe, from her book Ripe From Around Here. The chili isn’t really much of a recipe: in a large pot, saute up one diced onion until softened, then toss in a few minced cloves of garlic. Cook for a few minutes, then add in a 19 oz can of kidney beans, black beans and two large cans of diced tomatoes. Dump in some chili powder, chopped chipotle peppers and cumin to taste. Add in corn (an entire jar in my case!) and stir everything super well to let the flavours meld. Cook for 20 minutes or so, then taste and adjust seasonings. Done.

The squash soup is based on a recipe from FatFree Vegan Kitchen. I’ve posted it with my modifications below, but the kudos go to Susan for the original idea! Oh and ignore the nutrition label on the jar in the picture… I really did make this soup, I just reused an old jar.

Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato and Corn Soup
Heavily inspired by Susan’s recipe at FatFree Vegan Kitchen

1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons chipotle pepper sauce
3 cups butternut squash, chopped into 1-inch cubes
2 cups sweet potato, chopped into 1-inch cubes
5 cups vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
3/4 cup plain, unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used almond)
2 cups fresh corn kernels
freshly ground pepper
salt & pepper to taste

Saute the onion over medium heat in a large pot until browned, about 5 minutes or so. Add in the garlic and ginger and cook for another minute or two, then add in the chipotle, squash, sweet potato and broth. Lower your heat to medium-low and cook until both the squash and sweet potato are tender, 20-30 minutes. If you need to, add a bit of water to the pot periodically to make sure the liquid level remains the same.

Once your squash and sweet potato are cooked, add in the curry powder and non-dairy milk. Then, grab your trusty hand blender and puree the soup until smooth (be careful not to let it splash on you!). Add salt and pepper to taste, and a bit more curry powder and/or chipotle if you feel it needs the extra kick.

Last but never least, add in your corn kernels and cook until tender, about 3 minutes or so.

Eat!

I certainly had fun jarring up all that stuff, and I hope some of you who have never really tried prepping food ahead will try freezing or canning – it really is pretty easy and will make eating healthy meals a whole lot easier when you barely have time to think!

To check out more of what my fellow Daring Cooks did with this month’s challenge, just visit the Daring Kitchen.